Homer, Alaska

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A bitter,
childless woman and her husband visit their new retirement cabin.
There, she encounters a mysterious boy at a lake.

A 232 page eBook of
Alaskan family fiction.

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CHAPTER ONE.

Dawn filled the hills with purple mist. Ellie looked away, stared at
unpaved side-roads her husband drove past, and worried. Where is he
taking me? It was hard to see out in the dim morning
light, especially
with all the bugs that had died on the windshield. Each gray turn-off
from the main road headed in all likelihood to dark green prison walls
of trees. Already she missed her friends in the city and the activities
at the club.
"I have no idea
where we are," Ellie said.
"Please. Relax,"
Edward said.
"I am relaxed.
I've been relaxed for two hours."
"Rosita and Carla
prepared food. It's in the picnic basket," he said. His features
twisted into a tight smile.
Ellie said, "I'm
certainly not going to serve you food."
"I'm not hungry.
There's coffee in the thermos, though."
"And you expect me
to get it?"
Edward stared in steady concentration
straight ahead, and his stony
look made her hands knot up. Rather than put up with such stubborn
silence, she decided to go ahead, get the damn coffee, thinking
goodness who does he think he is? Ellie turned in the seat, groaning.
She would have to unfasten the seat belt. She lifted her body, felt
around in the back. Feeling the basket, she peered over the seat and
under the basket's cover. She made out wrapped sandwiches, yogurt, a
bottle of expensive wine, cheese, crackers, fresh apples and bananas.
No thermos.
"Oh for heaven's
sake, where is it?"
She fussed around
in there, stretched further over the seat, and spotted a cylindrical
shape lying on the floor. She reached for the top and grabbed.
She
hadn't thought to have coffee herself, and considered riding in
Edward's Pathfinder and pouring coffee at the same time beneath her
background and social place. Imagine,
me pouring coffee in a moving
vehicle. As she tipped the thermos, Edward opened the top
of the
Pathfinder's center armrest. Inside were holes for the coffee cups. The
road was not bumpy, so Ellie had little difficulty other than in her
resistance to servile work pouring the coffee into the cups.
This is the kind
of work Rosita or Carla should do, she was thinking.
"There," Ellie
said. "I hope you're satisfied." Edward certainly
heard her beleaguered
tone. She could tell from the diminished smile he made to the rolling
road ahead without moving his mouth at all, a look she understood all
too well. Out the window the morning time of half light slowly passed
away as the Pathfinder climbed higher into the mountains. To her the
scenery appeared particularly dreary, green bones of trees, an
occasional field with clumps of wounded grass. She glanced over again
at Edward and out his window. Above the horizon rose a blurred and
electric orange sun that through the windshield struck the planes of
Edward's angular chin. Edward as usual looked serious and dedicated, a
long, narrow tan face, thinly seamed.
Probably
listening to me the same
way he listens in court, those awful child abuse cases, juveniles,
parents not paying child support, children running away. Awful
children. I'm certainly glad the Good Lord never made me bear that
burden, having children. Heavens.
"I'm not one of your sick juvenile
cases, Edward," she said. "Don't
give me that sorry look."
"Oh, please. Don't ruin this."
"Ruin? This isn't my idea. Imagine,
after all these years you
practically forcing me to come to God knows where. Why, we've
completely left the city."
"It's a cabin. The cabin I had built."
"Well of course it's a cabin. But that's
your business, Edward. Your
idea to retire. Your idea to buy lake property. Not mine. I hate the
wilderness."
"When I retire, I want us, you and me,
Ellie, to spend time together,
like when we were young."
"I'll go crazy."
"Maybe if you'll just see it. You once
made photographs."
"That's gone forever, Edward. Nothing to
see anymore, not since..."
Ellie pulled her mouth in at the corners and gave Edward a
keep-your-mouth
shut look. Edward probably knew what she almost said, the way he gave
her
his benediction face. How she resented that, him coming across with
that
delicate dimension of sensitivity, treating her again like one of them,
his
stupid juvenile cases. She fiddled with the buttons on her blouse. They
were small pearl-shaped ones, and she unbuttoned one and buttoned it
again
and again, absently looking out at the blur of trees, hearing the tire
treads
under the Pathfinder whirring over the endless road with the annoying
yellow line down the middle.
Edward said, "Not since we found out."
"We are not going to speak of that. Not
now. Not ever."
"But it's the truth. You just quit, same
day Doc Hansen gave us the
news. Jesus, Ellie, thirty-two years."
"I did not quit. I have a life. You have
yours. The famous Judge."
"We could have adopted, Ellie, like Doc
Hansen said."
"Oh, you and your bright ideas. That
young woman lied."
"Ellie, she was a child herself. She at
first wanted to give up the
child
to us."
"And you, you stupid idiot, paid for her
medical expenses."
"I was glad to help."
"She lied. Took the baby from us."
"Then, we should have tried again.
Rather than this. Look at us now.
Nothing."
"The way it was meant to be, Edward. I
don't want to hear another
word."
Edward moved his head slightly, probably
to establish some sort of
perspective, re-arrange his thinking somehow. He sagged into the
driver's
seat and reached for the small coffee cup as though it was the only
solid
goodness remaining in his world. He took a silent sip. From the aroma,
Ellie guessed Edward was drinking an exotic decaf blend. Ellie allowed
a
small amount to pass over her lips. To her, the taste was acceptable,
but she
wasn't much interested in telling Edward about it.
Edward pressed a little harder on the
accelerator as the Pathfinder
climbed a rise. Ahead was another straightaway lined with trees. Edward
was taking Ellie farther from the safety of her tight circle of friends
at the
club, forcing her, the way she saw it. She begrudgingly took him in
from the
corners of her eyes.
He hadn't changed much over the years.
Edward had turned gray in
his forties. The gray had turned to a dignified silver. Unlike some his
age,
he wasn't stooped, but straight and tall. She had heard over the years
that
those who knew him and his work in the courts respected him. To her, he
was just Edward, living the way he wanted. Fine with her, if he would
only
leave her alone.
Edward turned off on an unpaved
side-road. Ellie puzzled over where
he was going but remained silent, hoping the ghastly ride would soon
end.
The Pathfinder bounced along, stirring up a cloud of yellow dust on a
road
almost too narrow for on-coming vehicles to pass. Tree branches hung
over
them like arms, and Ellie looked up into their sun-shot leaves. The
lone sign
of civilization was an occasional power pole that carried a single
drooping
line, probably, she was thinking, to give electricity to whoever lived
here.
She gave Edward an expression of disapproval. This was not going to be
a
pleasant experience for either Edward or her.
She would see to that.
The road widened and turned. Trees drew
apart and sun bathed the
Pathfinder with dazzling light. Ellie sat back, stung. A lake appeared
in the
windshield, looking almost like an oil painting. She saw a cabin built
with
overhanging eaves, two stories tall, a red ribbon tied around the
entrance.
"Oh, my God," Ellie burst out, "this is the
surprise?"
Edward busied himself in the back,
moving around as though he had
an odd, volatile feeling about the country, which she would never in
her life
understand. As Ellie got out, he came around, carrying a pair of
scissors.
She refused to let her reserve thaw, in spite of the great exultation
that
appeared to fill Edward's chest to bursting.
"You're the one to cut the ribbon. This
is our summer place, where we
can spend time together, away from the city."
Might as well be talking to the wind,
she thought. He's certainly gone
to a lot of trouble for nothing.
Ellie looked hard and for a long time at
the scissors, not wanting to
do
anything that would imply agreement to a lifestyle that to her would be
most
unpleasant. But just to get it over with she reached, and with an
indrawn
gasp she cut the ribbon in two.
Bastard! she whispered behind his back.
Edward looked at her, and she noticed
lines around his eyes, blue
flecked with gray. The idea slowly germinated that now she was here,
she
must somehow tolerate this, just this once, though the hunger to leave
gnawed in her.
Just for the week-end, she said to
herself. Today, part of tomorrow.
Edward took her by the arm and lead her
toward the front entrance.
Withdrawing, Ellie let him walk ahead and unlock the door. Edward
looked
inside and turned to her. Bowing slightly from the waist, he gestured
toward
the interior with a flourishing wave of his arm.
"Enter. Tell me what you think."
She said absolutely nothing. Her
scowling mood remained.
Sun entered the living room through
kitchen windows and sliding
glass doors opening onto a long, white porch facing the lake. There,
Ellie saw a barbecue grill, lounge chairs, and a table.
Inside, trophies of
animals
and fish hung on the wall, ones the Judge had taken through the years.
Ellie
had put them into storage long ago, and Edward obviously had shipped
them
up here without her knowing. Edward opened the sliding doors, took her
hand and guided her out. She could see Edward looking over the railing.
Below in the water she saw an aluminum boat with an outboard motor on
its
stern, tied to a dock. Stairs led from the dock to the porch.
"This is a beautiful lake," Edward said.
"There's trout here. You and I
can go fishing. And there are trails around here, too, so we can go for
walks.
This is a healthy way for us to spend our summers after I retire."
"Oh, of course. As content as field
mice. Really. This is what you
dragged me here for? Edward, since when have I liked the country?"
She'd
pushed the words across to him, hard, and Ellie saw their effect,
Edward
raising his hands in a don't-shoot pose.
"Ellie, all I want you to do is give
this a try. Please." A pleading
tone, an urgent look. She looked away, pretended to survey the porch,
gaze
at the lake. The trees bored her as much as the blurred ones she had
looked
at on the long drive. She stepped into the interior of the cabin and
stood in a
mid-sized dining room. To her left, a breakfast counter surrounded by
barstools separated the kitchen from the dining room. The floors were
the
hardwood variety with Persian rugs spread over them. Sofas, coffee
tables,
end tables, bookshelves, den chairs, and a dining room table furnished
the
entire downstairs. A recliner stood in one corner next to an end table
on
which she saw binoculars, Edward's pipe, tobacco and an ashtray. A wall
clock of the cuckoo style hung above the fireplace. Its ticking plucked
the nerves in Ellie's head. It was 9:45 a.m.
"Well you've certainly conveyed your
intentions clearly, Edward, but
as usual I don't think you've got both oars in the water."
She opened the refrigerator and
discovered a cake, a loaf of bread,
milk, a quart of orange juice, diet soft drinks, eggs, bacon, sour
cream and Tbone
steaks. In the freezer she noticed a pint of her favorite ice cream,
French vanilla, and a bag of peas. The cabinets held cups, saucers and
plates. The drawers contained a setting of silverware and cooking
utensils.
A radio sat on the counter next to a basket of potatoes. A display of
pots and
pans as well as condiments and canned goods completed the kitchen's
culinary trappings.
The homeyness of the cabin shocked
Ellie, a full-fledged country flat,
one Edward expected her to live in. Edward must have lost his mind to
think for one minute she'd even consider spending time here, away from
the
girls at the club, Doris and Gloria.
"Never seen anything so ridiculous in
all my life," she said.
Edward appeared unperturbed, and he gave
Ellie that same
understanding look she'd always hated, the one that told Ellie he
thought of
her as another of his sorry juveniles. Edward led her upstairs to the
master
bedroom, where she saw the king-sized bed, the dressers and mirrors, a
full
bathroom, and closets. The cabinets contained some of Ellie's clothes,
vinyllooking
raincoats and rubber boots. About the room and over the headboard
she saw oil paintings she had done years ago, not long after they
married.
Memories ruffled through her mind like wind on the waters of a lake.
She
had taken art courses to keep busy, to keep her mind occupied after
Doc Hansen's news. She'd made the paintings on the wall from
photographs.
I was quite good, she thought, looking
at them. One was of a young
man standing with his hand on an older woman's shoulder: Edward and his
mother, from an old photograph. She'd known of the Andrews family and
of
Edward since she was a child, a family as wealthy as hers. The other
painting was her rendering of Carl Turner, when he was younger. Years
ago
Ellie had taken a photo of Carl when he was caretaker of the estate of
Ellie's
mother and father. Ellie had made the photograph of him near the large
tree,
a hoe in one hand, looking into the lens like an older brother looks,
with love
and concern and caring. Both paintings quite good.
Ellie followed her husband to another
room, smaller than the master
bedroom. There Ellie saw two twin beds. This was the guest room,
complete with a half-bath.
"Something to eat?" Edward said. Ellie
felt his eyes probing her.
"Then I'll take you around the lake. Maybe I can catch a trout or
two."
Ellie reluctantly followed him
downstairs, and in the kitchen she
opened the basket Rosita and Carla had prepared. Ellie hid the wine in
the
refrigerator behind the milk and bread. The wine, which they seldom
drank,
was Edward's way of celebrating her arrival there. She would have none
of
it. Ellie would not toast a lifestyle such as this. She had no
intention of
returning.
Ellie placed the food on the table, and
poured coffee from the
thermos, all the while with a nagging feeling she was doing what she
paid
Rosita and Carla to do, servant's work.
They ate in silence.
Afterward, she wandered to the porch and
watched Edward below on
the dock fiddling with the silly little boat. A movement from the
opposite
shore caught her attention. A small smear of color clashed with the
relentless trees. She heard a splash. A
fish jumping, perhaps.
Ellie made out a small figure standing
on what looked to be a fallen
log. She figured the child had thrown a rock or a branch into the
water.
A small boy, one with red hair.
Curious, she went inside for the
binoculars. She focused on the boy.
He was urinating in the water. Ellie saw the way the light came though
the
trees, how the boy's piss streamed in a small arc through the air and
bubbled
into the lake.
"Edward?" she called. "I want you to
come see this, your beautiful
lake."
Edward trudged up the steps and
approached Ellie with a frown and
an outreached hand. Ellie poked the binoculars at him with an emphatic
gesture.
He looked to where Ellie truculently
pointed.
"Oh, Ellie, it's a boy. A little red-headed boy."
"Senseless," she said. "An absolutely
senseless child."
______________________________About the Author:
Shirley S. Bue lives in Anchorage, Alaska with her husband, Arne